Germany’s far-right party AfD has now caught up with Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) as the two are polling at 19% in latest opinion polls, while the leading opposition party, the conservative union of CDU and CSU, is polling at 27%, data published by polling institute INSA this weekend reads.
Support for the AfD has dwindled in recent years, with the party reaching only 10% in the 2021 federal election as the party struggled to bridge the gap between anti-vaxxers and those broadly supportive of COVID-19 protection measures.
Conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz (CDU) blamed the governing three-party coalition for the renewed rise of the far right.
“A weak and constantly arguing government elicits counter-reactions. Through the AfD, citizens can teach a strong lesson,” he wrote in his personal newsletter. The government no longer listens to the voices of “normal citizens”, he added.
Scholz has a different view of the situation, as he blames the various crises for the AfD’s success, not his government’s policies.
“We live in a time of upheavals, and many citizens in our countries are not sure whether the future is on their side, or if they even have one,” he said at an event in Hamburg while calling the AfD a “bad mood party.”
(Julia Dahm | EURACTIV.de)
Read more with EURACTIV
Kurti says conflict aims to divide country, former FM wants US to take lead in dialogue
Source: euractiv.com
